MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 104 e.g., Delhi University, Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University (Raipur), Presidency University (Kolkata), Bangalore University, IIT-Indore, etc. IUCAA has recently (from the year 2021) started an M.Sc programme in Astrophysics in collaboration with the Savitribai Phule Pune University. Pondicherry University has recently started offering astronomy as an elective in its M.Sc (Physics) programme in collaboration with IIA. IUCAA, in consultation with senior astronomy faculty in different universities, has designed A&A course syllabus for short and long term programmes. IIT Indore has an MS programme inAstrophysics and Space Sciences and IISER Kolkata has a Centre for Excellence in Space Sciences. IISER-Mohali offers minor programme andAshoka University has recently started the same at the undergraduate level. This needs to be expanded to more universities. Departments where multiple astronomers are present can be encouraged to offer a suite of electives or aminor. • Faculty members of institutes and universities with experience in teaching astronomy courses can be encouraged to offer courses on online portals as well. It is heartening to see that the number of such courses on SWAYAMhas increased in the last two years but more effort is required in this direction. • Encourage universities and colleges to recruit faculty members in astronomy. Indeed, astronomy should be recognised as an essential field within physics just like high energy physics or condensed matter physics. Further, many areas of classical physics are used much more heavily in astrophysics and hence are better suited for teaching such subjects. • Help set up small optical and radio telescopes with basic backend equipment in universities and colleges (with a goal of about 15 such facilities across the country over the next decade). In places where these are put to good use, more funds may be provided for better equipment and backend detectors. As evidenced in the special session on astronomy education during theASI meetings, this can help generate manpower with a good grasp of basics. • Encourage development of low-cost equipment that can be used in lab courses and projects in colleges/universities and demonstration of key innovations used in mega projects. Some of the equipment can be developed by the teams working on mega projects. Proposals for designing such equipment may be invited from the larger community. Users should be encouraged to write articles describing these experiments in journals of science and astronomy education so that the ideas can be replicated in other colleges and universities.AsA&Amega projects require a variety of inputs, we should try to involve as many different departments and disciplines as possible in this activity. Industries that are participating in mega projects can also be tapped for support. The SWAN (radio antennas) and the solar spectrograph projects are a couple of examples of such development. • Short duration (3-4 days) workshops onA&A should be organised in different colleges and universities. Such workshops are already being organised by a few institutes, and these need to be expanded. These workshops need to have an enlarged scope to cover skill-sets from physics, data analysis, engineering andmanagement to train students for working in large projects. • Hands-on training for selected students at large facilities associated with mega projects. Such facilities MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035